LOST AND FOUND: HOA HAKANANAI A AND THE ORONGO DOORPOST

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1 LOST AND FOUND: HOA HAKANANAI A AND THE ORONGO DOORPOST JO ANNE VAN TILBURG University of California at Los Angeles This article is designed to make two related arguments. The first establishes the original provenance of the Orongo doorpost as a paenga basalt foundation stone incorporated into a high-status, elliptical house with a thatched superstructure (hare paenga or hare vaka). The paenga was subsequently re-purposed and re-carved by adding an anthropomorphic face and then re-positioned at the entrance of a stone house at Orongo. Collected in 1914 by the Mana Expedition and then either left behind or taken from their stores, perhaps during the native rising, it was later placed in front of the island s main colonial residence before its probable sale to a second collector aboard the Carnegie in The second argument is that the altered situations of the doorpost and the basalt statue known as Hoa Hakananai a, itself re-positioned from an as yet unknown ceremonial site (ahu) to the interior of the same Orongo house before being collected by H.M.S. Topaze in 1868, removed both objects from their traditional contexts but did not necessarily alter their value to the Rapanui community. HOA HAKANANAI A 1 On 4 November 1868 Lt William Metcalf Lang and Dr Charles Bailey Greenfield of H.M.S. Topaze discovered and then with the substantial aid of their shipmates, resident missionaries, colonials and nearly all members of what was then a small Rapanui community collected Hoa Hakananai a from the ceremonial village of Orongo, Rano Kau, Rapa Nui. The statue was standing upright, buried to its shoulders and with its back to the door of an elliptical stone building called Taura renga or Ko Tau Re Renga O Miru. 2 It faced northwest, away from the sea and towards the hereditary lands of the Miru, the highest-ranked social group (mata). 3 The Miru were centred at Anakena, produced the island s paramount chief (ariki mau) and dominated the island s western and northwestern geographical regions ([Ko] Tuu). Skilfully executed in fine-grained, dark gray basalt of a type visually similar to that found at Rano Kau, the statue is a faithful rendition of a Rano Raraku style variant in dimensions, form and design attributes. It is idiosyncratic, however, in two ways: a suite of bas-relief elements is carved on its dorsal side, and it was secondarily placed in a unique location. The resultant interaction of artefact and site creates a forceful alteration of Rapanui Journal of the Polynesian Society, 2014, 123 (4): ; DOI:

2 384 Lost and Found: Hoa Hakananai a and the Orongo Doorpost viewers perception and, I claim, a purposeful change in moai function. There is no certain evidence that Hoa Hakananai a was ever on a ceremonial platform (ahu), but this is not to say that it had not been. 4 Hoa Hakananai a departed Rapa Nui with an impromptu Rapanui ceremony but as a trade commodity and, ultimately, became a museum object. No matter how much Hoa Hakananai a resembles countless other moai once upright on ahu, the statue s social life and cultural biography are unique among the 1,442 stone sculptural objects we have documented for Rapa Nui. 5 THE ORONGO DOORPOST On 10 June 1914 Katherine Routledge of the Mana Expedition to Easter Island (assisted by William Scoresby Routledge, Frank T. Green and Rapanui consultants: Antonio Haoa, Carlos Charlie Teao Tori and an unnamed boy ) collected an object she described as the Orongo doorpost. It was found lying about near the house of the image (that is, the house known as Taura renga in which Hoa Hakananai a had been found partially buried). Routledge believed it had once been upright at the entrance to the building. 6 The Orongo Doorpost Described The paenga is carved of smooth, dark gray to black basalt which appears to be of the Rano Kau type (Fig. 1). It is cm tall and cm wide at the base. It is slightly bevelled back from the midpoint. On the back are four post holes of varying sizes and depths and averaging 6.35 cm in diameter. All are smooth, with worn edges and slightly discoloured, gray interiors suggesting that the paenga was actually used as a foundation stone. There is a very distinct line of discolouration along the entire length of the paenga that was created by the soil when the piece was earlier installed at the entrance to the Carnegie Institution (see below). There is no line of discolouration at the base; its upright position as a doorpost is thus not unequivocally supported. 7 The carved face consists of two oval eyes, a nose that incorporates the brow ridge, and an open mouth. The eyes and nose detail are typical of Makemake carvings, most of which appear to be of rather recent manufacture and some (such as those in Rano Raraku) are certainly historic. It also has tracings of the cheek pouches under the eyes that are typical of tangata manu bird man and other woodcarvings. It somewhat resembles Monument 1 at Orongo and has commonalities with many other objects, including the Motu Nui boundary statue, a re-carved torso in Rano Raraku, a broken basalt post set upright in a small pavement, and a carving recently excavated in Rano Raraku ( 8

3 Jo Anne Van Tilburg 385 Figure 1. Two views of the Orongo doorpost (CI-WDC-001), Michael J. Colella. Easter Island Statue Project. Collection and Loss of the Orongo Doorpost 9 While the population consisted of only about 250 people in 1914, it is probable that some Rapanui had witnessed the collecting forays of the English in 1868 and, in 1886, an American expedition. In addition, in 1914 there were two sophisticated colonials on the island who knew the value of trade objects and artefacts: Henry Percy Edmunds and Ignacío Vives Solar. One week after landing the Routledges began an industrious preliminary collecting sweep throughout the island. They announced their eagerness to barter and nearly everyone was interested. Katherine Routledge s main ethnographic consultants traded information rather than objects, but certain resident colonial and Rapanui names in her field notes are repeatedly associated with bartered goods. Among them are the Frenchman (Vicente Varta Pont), Juan Tepano, Nicholas Pakarati Urepotahi and Parapina. 10

4 386 Lost and Found: Hoa Hakananai a and the Orongo Doorpost The Routledges were not generous people by nature and drove hard bargains. They traded cloth, paint, coal, sugar, clothing, cigarettes, blankets and other sundry goods for dozens of curios, statuettes, paddles, human crania and bones. Some objects were deemed fakes and rejected. Scoresby was not rigorous in his task of labelling, cataloguing and crating and the Routledges were unwilling to pay for objects discovered by workmen during excavations. Workmen were given a daily wage and artefacts were deemed Expedition property. Katherine Routledge came armed with photos of Hoa Hakananai a and other museum objects, and she showed them to her Rapanui consultants. Survey began at Orongo almost immediately upon arrival and excavations continued sporadically throughout nearly the entire time the Expedition was on the island. Every building at Orongo was explored, cleared and mapped, and many were dug. 11 The Orongo doorpost and a companion doorpost were found on 2 June. 12 Routledge recognised that originally they had been foundation stones in a hare paenga before being converted into doorposts for the house of the image. 13 The Orongo doorpost was removed and whitewashed in order to bring out the carved features and secure good photographs (Fig. 2). 14 On Wednesday, 10 June, the Routledges, Frank T. Green, Antonio Haoa and Carlos Teao Tori got off whitewash door post [removed the whitewash from the doorpost?]. On Tuesday, 23 June, Routledge sent up Henry McClean, Carlos Teao Tori and Antonio Haoa [and] brought down doorpost. The next day Henry & Antonio fetched a third object, a round stone from Orongo. 15 The precise original location of the round stone is not known, but it was probably inside or associated with building No. 11. It is highly probable that Rapanui workmen reported every object removed from Orongo to friends or family. Gossip was widespread, and many people resented the Routledges highhanded manner in all things. Some were angry that they were not paid for artefacts and other objects taken from Orongo. The native rising described so vividly by Routledge in The Mystery of Easter Island (1919) had deep causal roots and harsh political repercussions. The first inkling of trouble was on 16 June, when Routledge discovered her stores had been broken into. While she lists many things taken, she does not note the loss of the Orongo doorpost. The rebellion then burst fully into the open on 30 June, just six days after the Routledges had removed the last of the three objects (the round stone) and while they were still excavating at Orongo. It forced them to move from Mataveri across the island to their Camp Hotu Iti near Rano Raraku. While the underlying cause of the uprising was embedded in years of privation, unfair treatment and resentment of colonial management, the match that lit the fuse

5 Jo Anne Van Tilburg 387 Figure 2. Rapanui man and Orongo whitewashed doorpost, June The British Museum. was the Mana Expedition s vast quantities of food and supplies, their showy display of wealth, their stiff-necked unwillingness to negotiate for objects collected and, I submit, their removal of the Orongo doorpost and other objects. Supporting evidence for that opinion includes the fact that Carlos Teao Tori was fired by W. Scoresby Routledge just before the rebellion and was a central ringleader of it. W. Scoresby Routledge donated a substantial number of objects to such institutions as the British Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, but the exact provenance of donated objects is rarely given. 16 For example, a white painted stone (also whitewashed?) with a birdman figure in low relief was collected at Orongo (BM ). This is of obvious interest, but is it the large figured stone [raised] for photographing near Complex A on 6 June or the sculptured stone N. end of village & house 32 dug out on 22 June?

6 388 Lost and Found: Hoa Hakananai a and the Orongo Doorpost Rediscovery of the Orongo doorpost : Carnegie on Rapa Nui, 24 Dec Jan Sixteen months after the departure of the Mana Expedition, the American research vessel Carnegie under the command of Captain J.P. Ault arrived at Easter Island. Sailing from San Francisco in November 1916, Carnegie was on Cruise IV of an elaborate mission to make a magnetic survey of the globe that began in 1905 and continued to 1921 (covering 291,595 statute miles). After arriving on Easter Island at 3:00 pm on Christmas Eve Captain Ault went ashore with the two white residents [Subdeligado Maritimo Ignacio Vives Solar and Ranch Manager Henry Percy Edmunds]. Had tea, sliced pineapple, pineapple preserve, cold roast pig. Gov. was making preparations to celebrate Xmas eve. Loading shells with powder & a fuse. Meat and taro being roasted in the ground, buried with hot stones. People dressed in anything and nothing, very democratic. 17 Ault s men established a magnetic station and obtained declination readings. Ault explored the island in company with Vives Solar and the Italian. They climbed down into Ana Te Pau; rode out to Tongariki and collected numerous skulls with curious geometric designs carved on the foreheads, indicating that they had been chiefs ; then also explored Orongo and Rano Raraku, where they photographed remnants of Routledge excavations. 18 On 25 December Ault and the entire party celebrated Christmas at a curanto feast given in their honour. In a series of photographs on file with the Carnegie Institution, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, documenting that celebration, we discovered both the Orongo doorpost and the round stone said to have been removed by the Routledges in three images. In the first, a Rapanui man in a feather headdress is energetically performing with an unusual dance paddle ( ao) for the benefit of a crowd of people in front of a house (Fig. 3). The Orongo doorpost is standing upright to the man s left and a round or oval stone is upright just behind him. The second image depicts a detail of the Orongo doorpost upright in the garden (Fig. 4), and the third is a postcard made from a posed photograph of an unnamed man and a group of Rapanui children with the Orongo doorpost (Fig. 5). 19 The man is Ignacio Vives Solar, who probably brokered the sale of the objects. The dancing Rapanui man turned up within months of our archival Carnegie research in a previously unknown photographic portrait taken at Mataveri by someone in the Mana Expedition (Fig. 6). The only possible conclusion is that the Rapanui man knew the Routledges and, because of his age and apparent importance in the community, was probably among Katherine s Rapanui consultants (korohua). 20 Further, I speculate that he may have had

7 Jo Anne Van Tilburg 389 Figure 3. Dancing Rapanui man, Orongo doorpost (CI-WDC-001) in right foreground and round or oval stone (CI-WDC-003) in right background. Carnegie Institute of Washington, D.C., Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. Figure 4. Orongo doorpost (CI-WDC-001) upright in garden, Rapa Nui, Note traces of whitewash. Carnegie Institute of Washington, D.C., Department of Terrestrial Magnetism.

8 390 Lost and Found: Hoa Hakananai a and the Orongo Doorpost Figure 5. Ignacío Vives Solar and Rapanui children with Orongo doorpost (CI-WDC-001), Carnegie Institute of Washington, D.C., Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. a proprietary interest in the Orongo doorpost and its companion pieces and ask the questions: Did the Routledges simply leave the Orongo doorpost and other objects behind or were they repatriated by the Rapanui during the native rising? If the latter, was the dancing Rapanui man involved? Returning to the Carnegie s visit: on New Year s Eve the islanders were invited to tour the vessel. 21 The unusual ao brandished by the dancing Rapanui man and an ua were among objects traded while on board. Trade throughout the crew s stay on the island was brisk and the Americans were generous. Small images, made to imitate the huge statues for which the island is famous, and other curios were traded for any articles of clothing which could be spared. Some of the trades were: one good image for two pots of paint; one

9 Jo Anne Van Tilburg 391 Figure 6. Portrait of Rapanui man who is the same as the dancing man in Figure 3. Mana Expedition to Easter Island, Paul Postle Collection [PPC]. image not quite so old for one pair of trousers; one small image for one shirt, and the shirt must be that worn by the trader, as the native thus feels sure he is getting a good article. One man on board had to change shirts three times in an afternoon. 22 The Carnegie visit to Rapa Nui was brief and Captain Ault wrote to his wife Mamie on departure: I find that my stay on Easter Island was rather tiring. A good deal of horseback riding in company with a Chileno [Vives Solar] constantly straining to understand & speak Spanish & to keep things going smartly was quite tiring & we are well away & into the work again. 23

10 392 Lost and Found: Hoa Hakananai a and the Orongo Doorpost According to Shaun J. Hardy, Librarian at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Mr William Key, now a facilities engineer who was a gardener there in the 1980s, remembers the Orongo doorpost outside with another in 1983, where they were placed on either side of the entrance to the building. 24 They were on a slight slope and parallel to the stairs. Interestingly, the doorpost provenance may have been communicated to Ault as oral history, thus suggesting the outdoor placement of the two objects at the Carnegie Institution. At an unknown date before or during remodelling of the building in 1989, the Orongo doorpost was moved inside the building, where we recorded it in Its companion doorpost is apparently lost. There is no record of the round stone being in the Carnegie Collection. * * * This short article has brought together myriad strands of a long story that began in 1868 and ends in Washington, D.C. in It tracks the Orongo doorpost as an artefact collected and then either left behind by the Mana Expedition or taken from their stores. Subsequently, it was displayed in front of the Island s main colonial residence, where it became the object of performance ritual conducted by an as yet unnamed leader of the Rapanui community during its probable sale to a second collector aboard the Carnegie. I argue that the doorpost first functioned as a foundation stone in the hare paenga of a high-status Miru person. It was re-carved by adding a Makemake face, the patron god of the Miru, and then re-purposed for an unknown length of time as the doorpost to Taura renga, the ceremonial building in which Hoa Hakananai a was placed after it had been removed from an unknown site probably also related to the Miru. Both objects, in their separate situations, functioned in association with hierarchical rank and visualised social bonds until they transitioned to the realm of curios and museum objects. They were collected during a liminal (Turner 1969: 96) time in Rapanui history, when social bonds were tenuous, status was altered, order was dictated by a colonial presence and the continuity of tradition was uncertain. I regard the performance of the dancing Rapanui man in front of the colonial manager s house as an attempt to create or reinforce community by re-assimilating the doorpost as an object of traditional status and value before it was, once again, separated from its context and removed from Rapa Nui forever. 25

11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Jo Anne Van Tilburg 393 This article is an edited version of a paper I delivered in 2010 at Gotland, Sweden, during the VII International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific: Migration, Identity, and Cultural Heritage. It does not include related scientific investigations my colleagues and I have subsequently conducted on the basalt statue known as Hoa Hanakanai a and three other statues in another museum. Those data and observations are included in an article currently in preparation. The many persons and institutions supporting my research into the history of Hoa Hakanana a are acknowledged elsewhere (Van Tilburg 1992, 2003, 2006). The support of the British Museum staff, including Lissant Bolton, Jenny Newell, Jill Hasell and Natasha Smith (2007), is especially appreciated. The central research upon which this paper is based was accomplished during two visits to the Carnegie Institution of Washington in 2006, the initial one by Van Tilburg and the second by Alice Hom. Special thanks to Shaun J. Hardy, Archivist, Geophysical Library, Carnegie Institution of Washington for his help and to that institution for the reproduction of images. Follow-up research was conducted by Hom at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Thanks are owed to Paul Postle, who graciously shared with us his discovery of Routledge images, and to the archivists of the Edmunds/Bryan Collection, , Pacific Collection, University of Hawai i at Manoa. Thanks also to Grant McCall for his comments on the identity of the dancing Rapanui man and to Charlie Love for sharing photographs of the Orongo doorpost taken by our mutual friend, the late Bob Alexander. NOTES 1. The statue is known as (2.42 m tall) in the British Museum collection and BM-LON-001 in the EISP inventory (Van Tilburg 1992, 2006: 33-40, images 21, 22, 60). See Unpublished Sources Cited for details of acronyms and collection information. 2. Van Tilburg 2006: 35; building No. 11, Complex B, Orongo (Routledge 1919, 1920; designated R-13 by Ferdon, Jr. 1961: 250; Mulloy 1975). Routledge (RGS WKR 4/3/2) got the impression from Gabriel Revahiva that the name Taura renga was applied to the statue and Ko Tau Re Renga O Miru to the building, but later Routledge changed her mind (Van Tilburg 2003: 289, n.128). 3. A sketch of the statue in situ was made by Lt Matthew James Harrison and was thought to have been lost. Dorota Starzecka discovered it in British Museum files and it was first published by Van Tilburg (2006: 35, image 57). 4. Carved eye sockets, such as those present on Hoa Hakananai a, are uncontested indicators that moai were once upright on ahu possibly Complex A, Orongo. 5. Social life was coined for the cultural biographies that artefacts or objects may have or acquire (Appadurai 1986). 6. RGS/WKR 4/9; Routledge 1919: 259, Fig It was not upright in the Mataveri garden for long; no discolouration can be expected and none is present.

12 394 Lost and Found: Hoa Hakananai a and the Orongo Doorpost 8. Van Tilburg 2001: 30-31, 2006: 22, image 28b; for the post see 9. Routledge 1919, Van Tilburg Less than one generation after the removal of Hoa Hakananai a, the crew of U.S.S. Mohican, in search of a statue similar to that collected by H.M.S. Topaze, removed a moai and a moai head 10. Tepano sold Routledge the boundary statue from Motu Nui (PR-OXF-001); he or someone else may have carved it for that purpose. Jean-Baptiste Onèsime Dutrou-Bornier (Pitopito) was the French captain of Aorai and arrived at Rapa Nui in March, He was, essentially, a privateer who became John Brander s ranch manager on Rapa Nui until his despotic ways resulted in his murder in Routledge herself worked in Orongo buildings 1-7, 9, 10-12, 14, and The Orongo doorpost is CI-WDC-001 in the EISP inventory; its companion doorpost is CI-WDC-002. Routledge 1919: 259, Fig. 107; Van Tilburg 2003: 288 citing RGS WKR 4/ This quote and those following dealing with Orongo and the doorpost are from RGS/WKR 4/ Another version of the upright, whitewashed doorpost photo posed with an unnamed Rapanui boy is in the collection of Bernice P. Bishop Museum. The caption verso reads: carved slab on Orongo; Easter Island. Brought down to Matoveri [sic] by the Routledges but left behind by them. It was one of the door posts to one of the stone houses. It is white-washed to show the carving. Details of digging up both images are very interesting. 15. EISP inventory CI-WDC The Routledges had a large home museum, but no catalogue of objects in that collection has as yet come to light. The catalogue kept by WSR on the island is incomplete and inadequate. 17. CI-WDC. Series 7, Box 16, Folder 3. The digital copies of 193 photos in their collection are on file, EISP. Photos show that the women and girls wore cotton shift dresses, cotton stockings and good shoes, some of which had been delivered by mainland charities during the Mana Expedition stay. The men wore military issue and fedoras. Perky straw hats purchased in Argentina and given out in quantity by the Routledges were worn by both sexes. 18. Ault 1922: 26 Dec. to Rano Raraku; 27 Dec. to Orongo; 28 Dec. horseback ride to Italian s house. Visited caves ; 30 Dec. Rano Raraku. The skull with designs is included in a paper my colleagues and I are working on in which all known decorated skulls are described. 19. Probably Percy Edmunds; a copy or similar version of the second photo is in the files of Bernice P. Bishop Museum [BPB]. 20. The identity of the Rapanui man has not been established with certainty, but Grant McCall (pers. comm. 2007) suggested that it may be Gabriel Revahiva, whom Routledge (RGS/WKR) calls Kapiera (or versions thereof). This identification is highly probable as Routledge (RGS/WKR 4/3/2) discussed the name Taura renga with Gabriel Revahiva (Van Tilburg 2006: 64, n. 146); see n. 2 above. 21. Ault 1922; 26, 31 Dec. natives on board. 22. Ault 1922.

13 Jo Anne Van Tilburg Ault to My Dearly Beloved Wife 3 Jan (CI-WDC). 24. A stone the general shape and colour of the Orongo doorpost, but without discernable carved features, can be seen at the right of the entrance in a blurry colour snapshot without attribution in the Carnegie files. R.P. Bob Alexander saw the Orongo doorpost in that location in 1985 (C. Love, pers. comm and 3 photos). Alexander and I shared a research interest in Hoa Hakananai a; our correspondence is on file with EISP (B07). He did not mention the Carnegie files or the Orongo doorpost, and there is no evidence of which I am aware that, when he saw it, he recognised it for what it was. 25. A tangential postscript on the Carnegie and Commander Ault: The ship visited Rapa Nui again, 6-12 December 1928, on her last voyage. The six days were spent at anchor in Cook Bay and 13 hours of magnetic observations were made on shore. J. Hartland Paul (who spent one full day ashore) wrote: Today only about three hundred apathetic natives with their domestic animals manage to scratch out a living between the boulders, in soil that will not even grow the coconut. Furthermore, water is scarce, for the coarse volcanic soil is so porous that the forty-inch rainfall is lost at once. (Paul 1932: 162) At Vaihu he reported finding: a collection of skeletons with bones intact, and a pile of old skulls one of them had the chiselled markings supposed to be the sign of a chief (Paul 1932: 171). One year later, on December 29, 1929, Carnegie exploded in Apia, Samoa, and Commander J.P. Ault died en route to the hospital. REFERENCES Published Literature: Appadurai, A. (ed.), The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ault, Commander J.P., Sailing the Seven Seas in the interest of science. National Geographic Society Magazine: Washington, D.C Ferdon, E.N., Jr., The ceremonial site of Orongo. In T. Heyerdahl and E.N. Ferdon, Jr. (eds), Reports of the Norwegian Archaeological Expedition to Easter Island and the East Pacific, Vol. 1, Archaeology of Easter Island. Monograph 24. Santa Fe: School of American Research and the Museum of New Mexico, pp Mulloy, W., Investigation and Restoration of the Ceremonial Center of Orongo, Easter Island. Bulletin 4. New York: International Fund for Monuments, Inc., Easter Island Committee. Paul, J.H., The Last Cruise of the Carnegie. Baltimore: The Williams & Wilkins Co. Routledge, K.S., The Mystery of Easter Island. London: Sifton, Praed and Co Survey of the village and carved rocks of Orongo, Easter Island, by the Mana Expedition. Man: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland [London] 50:

14 396 Lost and Found: Hoa Hakananai a and the Orongo Doorpost Smith, N., Making connections. British Museum Magazine [Winter]: 8. Turner, Victor W., The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. Chicago: Aldine. Van Tilburg, J., HMS Topaze on Easter Island: Hoa Hakananai a and five other museum statues in archaeological context. Occasional Paper 73. London: British Museum Press Changing faces: Rapa Nui statues in the social landscape. In E. Kjellgren (ed.), Splendid Isolation Art of Easter Island. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, pp Among Stone Giants: The Life of Katherine Routledge and Her Remarkable Voyage to Easter Island. New York: Scribner s Remote Possibilities: HMS Topaze on Easter Island. Research Paper 158. London: British Museum Press. Unpublished Sources Cited BPB Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum of Polynesian Ethnology and Natural History (Bishop Museum), Honolulu, Hawai i ( About 150 negatives and/or photographs by Henry Percy Edmunds. CI-WDC Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism Archives ( James Percy Ault Papers (Bulk ). Series 1: Correspondence Box 3, Folder 6. Series 2: Carnegie Cruise IV & V, , C762-C1292, Box # A7 Nos. C , , pages 68-74M, Series 4: Journals , Box 16, Folder 3 Series 5: Photos and Albums, Box #21, to ; Box #22, Folders 3 & 7. EISP Easter Island Statue Project ( Image Database, External Collections Database. See also Box 07, Correspondence, JVT/R.P. Bob Alexander. PPC Paul Postle Photographic Collection: Katherine and William Scoresby Routledge Images of Africa and Easter Island. [Copies of some photographs on file, Easter Island Statue Project.] RGS/WKR Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Archives: The Routledge Collection, including the Mana Expedition to Easter Island Papers, together with some papers concerning WSR s expedition to cross the John Crow Mountains, Jamaica: Subcategory Diary. [This collections is also known as 402/WSR ( See Van Tilburg 2003 for full list.] UHM [Henry Percy] Edmunds/Bryan Collection, Pacific Collection, University of Hawai i at Mänoa, (

15 ABSTRACT Jo Anne Van Tilburg 397 The provenance of the Orongo doorpost before its removal from Rapa Nui in 1917 is established relative to the collection history of the basalt statue Hoa Hakananai a, removed in Both objects were collected from the same secondary site context at Orongo during a liminal period in Rapanui history, when traditional social bonds were tenuous and colonials and collectors regarded Rapanui objects as curios or trade objects. Impromptu Rapanui performances reinforced community identity and re-assimilated both objects into an innovated context before they were removed from Rapa Nui forever. Keywords: Rapa Nui, Orongo, Hoa Hakananai a, liminal model, ritual performance CITATION AND AUTHOR CONTACT DETAILS Van Tilburg, 1 Jo Anne, Lost and Found: Hoa Hakananai a and the Orongo Doorpost. Journal of the Polynesian Society 123 (4): DOI: / jps Corresponding author: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California at Los Angeles, A210 Fowler Building , Los Angeles, CA jvantil@g.ucla.edu

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